Sarah’s Key and Jack Reacher

Did you think I wasn’t reading books anymore? It’s been so long since I’ve posted about one, you probably did!! I admit, I have been reading less since school started, but I’ve still managed to fit in a few good ones.

Have you read Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay? If you did, let’s both take a moment to sigh over this book. I loved it. It’s set during the Holocaust in Paris. Did you know they were rounding up Jews in Paris too during the war? I didn’t. Sarah’s family is Jewish. When the book begins, the soldiers are only rounding up Jewish men, not women and children, so only Sarah’s father is hiding out. All of a sudden, soldiers show up at their door and want the entire family. Sarah and her brother have a secret hiding spot in the wall that requires a key. That no one but the family knows about. Sarah hides her brother with his lovey and some water and tells him to stay quiet and she’ll be right back.

She takes the key.

Is your heart breaking yet? It will after you read this book. One of the most heartbreaking aspects of this book is that the family truly has no idea that they are being taken to a concentration camp. They truly think they will be right back. It’s so sad. The strength of Sarah is what will keep you reading. She’s a pre-teen in this story and you won’t believe how courageous she is.

Sarah’s story is intertwined with Julia Jarmond’s present day story. She’s an American journalist living in Paris writing an article about Sarah’s event. She has her own drama going on while writing the article. (I won’t spoil it for you!) She becomes slightly obsessed with Sarah’s story and discovering what happened to her. I love the way the author intertwined these two stories. It is riveting.

I couldn’t put it down. I couldn’t stop thinking about Sarah and Julia. I wanted to go to Paris and see what they were talking about. That’s the sign of a great book, don’t you think?

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Do you know Jack Reacher? If not, you’re missing out. Lee Child writes a series of novels about a character named Jack Reacher. They are one of my most favorite series of all times. If you like murder mysteries with a little sex/love thrown in and a lot of action, you like these. I’ll let you form your own idea of what Jack looks like when you read the book but let’s just suffice it to say…hot.

I recently read 61 hours which was the latest Reacher novel until Worth Dying For just came out in October. My Mom actually bought me 61 hours because I had been on the waiting list at the library so long that it came out on paperback. She thought I had waited long enough. (Side note: My Mom and sister always make fun of me for using the library and not buying books. I’m on the waiting lists forever!!)

Jack Reacher is a drifter. He literally owns only the shirt on his back. He’s a former military policeman and he is the epitome of tough. Jack goes wherever the wind blows and it always lands him in some intense predicament. In this story, he’s on a bus full of senior citizens headed for Mount Rushmore in the middle of winter. Their bus crashes and they end up stranded in a podunk town in South Dakota. He walks into a crazy, twisted situation involving a very short drug dealer/murderer from Mexico, a rich old lady and some bikers. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?

Jack Reacher novels are always so good you can’t put them down. If you’re not reading them yet, go get them right now! (Or put your name on the waiting list at your local library and wait for months and months like I do. 😉 ) You don’t necessarily have to read them in order which is nice too.

Let me know if you’ve read any good books lately. I’m always looking for some new ones. And let me know if you read these and you like them! It’s not Gibby’s Juicy Novel Book Club, but we can still chat about it!

I don’t know that I would say I “make fun” of you 🙂 Maybe i would characterize it as “there’s no way in hell I could possibly wait that long for a book, and I wouldn’t remember to return it, so the late fees would equal the cost of buying it anyway” syndrome. But then again, you have much more discipline when it comes to delaying gratification than I do 😀

I finished Little Bee (by Chris Cleave), a compelling, but heartbreaking viewpoint of life. I also am reading The Geography of Bliss (Eric Weimar) and This Is Not The Story You Think It Is (Laura Munson).

I just finished Look Again by Lisa Scottoline. It is about a woman who sees her adopted child’s face on a flier for missing children. It is a really good mystery. I also get my books from the library when I can. I am on waiting lists all the time!

Finally catching up on blog reading after out of town and holiday stuff…
Did you read Water for Elephants? Her new book, Ape House, is super.
Also, not sure if it’s your cup of tea, but Saving Henry, about a family’s struggle to have a PGD baby to match and save it’s sick brother (Fanconi anemia) is good. Heartbreaking and inspiring and well written and cathartic…
I haven’t heard of Jack Reacher. Need to go to the library today!